Performance Of The Cream Silicon Charge Detector During Its First Flight

The Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) experiment was launched as a long duration balloon payload from McMurdo Station, Antarctica on 16 December 2004. For the charge measurement of incident cosmic-ray particles entering its calorimeter module, CREAM has a Silicon Charge Detector (SCD) comprised of 182 silicon sensors in an active area of 779mmx795mm. The sensors are DC-coupled PIN diodes fabricated from 380gm thick, n-type wafers. This presentation describes the construction of the detector and the performance of the SCD during its first flight.